Relinquishing Control of the Christmas Tree
When it comes to decorating the Christmas tree, I have a bit of a control issue – I want to do it all myself. I love the ornaments – every last one of them and I love taking the trip down memory lane with every last one I place on the tree.
So this year when it was time to start decorating and my kids opened the boxes of ornaments and nearly took each other down trying to find their favorite, it took everything in my motherly power not to flip a bit. Seriously, I could feel my heart pounding and I think I even started twitching (just kidding), but then it hit me – Christmas is about kids and my kids were really excited about decorating the tree.
Instead of letting myself get all wound up, I made myself a cup of tea, sat back in the chair and watched the kids place each ornament on the tree. I resigned myself to the fact that the tree would not be “perfect” (whatever that means) – instead I just enjoyed the moment.
Being the kids that they are, once they had each placed their favorite ornaments on the tree, one by one they kind of lost interest, leaving my prized White House ornaments left for me to hang up high.
What do you think? They did a pretty good job, didn’t they? (Just ignore the bare spot around the bottom ~ wink, wink)
Speaking of creative trees, check out BeAGoodDad’s very cool idea for a Christmas tree when you have little ones around.
I have tree control issues too!!!!!! My husband got the tree up Saturday and tonight we’re going to decorate it. I keep going over this in my mind. I’ve been wondering if I’m going to be able to handle it. After all, my kids are 2 and 4. Ugh! It will be ok, right?
BTW, your kids did a pretty good job.
This is so funny and I can so relate. The same thing happened with my 4 year old this year and my tree looks terrible. Oh well they are only little once. LOL
I let mine decorate the tree each year – it used to be that the decorations would be all on one side, and not very far up … but gradually, they’re getting taller, and coming round to the idea that you could decorate the tree all the way round.
We’ve not got our tree up yet – maybe this weekend?
The tree looks gorgeous! It’s just me and my 11 yo daughter in our house, and last night I put the tree up and strung the lights on it, and then I let her do the rest. She put all the ornaments on, and I sat there looking at it and thinking “she’s got them all clumped up in that one area”, but I just smiled and let her do it her own way. She really enjoyed it. Now I just have to keep my dog from undecorating it!
Glad to know I’m not the only one with control issues on the tree. I’ve got mine all planned out! I put mine up on Thanksgiving weekend when the kids are all gone to their other parents. When they come home, I make it exciting for them to sit by the tree and watch a Christmas Classic. This year it was Polar Express. We enjoy a nice cup of homemade hot chocolate with a bit of peppermint just to enjoy a true taste of the holiday too.
I decided that I just couldn’t give up the tree this year. After all, my kids are only 2 and 4. I think I would have needed a long nap if I had let them help. I decided to decorate it yesterday while my 4 year old was at preschool. I just put on a movie for my 2 year old. He was curious and it was hard for him to keep his hands off the ornaments, but he did pretty well. Thankfully, I had a few days to train the cat before we put all the ornaments on. The spray bottle worked great for her.
Your tree looks good! If you could see mine, you would laugh!
My 4 kids tried so hard to decorate it and it killed me to sit back and see my tree, but figured they were so proud of it, I would leave it how they did it!